Shift mechanism for type-writers.



M. N.1RONE.

SHIFT MECHANISNI FOR TYPE WRITERS. `APPILlcAr|oN FILED Nov.zo,1914. RENEwED SEPT. 3, 1918. v

1,296,717. Patented Mar. 11,1919. N5 u 3 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

. Sym

Arron/vm IVI. N. TRONE.

SHIFT MECHANISIVI FOR TYPE WRITERS.

I9l4. HENEWED SEPTI 3. |918.'

. I V APPLICATION III-LD NOV. 20|v l 1,296,717. l Patented Mar. 11,1919.'

/N VEN Tof? ,7570/175 M am a W A TTOHNEI'S M. N. TRONE.

SHIFT MECHANISM FOR TYPE WRITERS. AxlPLlcATloN man No\',.2o.19|4. RENEwED sEPT.3.19|a.

Patented Mar. 11, 1919.

,3 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

Wl T/VESSES MAURICE N. TRONE, OF HANOVER, PENNSYLVANIA.

SHIFT MECHANISM FOR TYPE-WRITERS.

vSpecification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 11, 1919.

Application led November 20, 1914, Serial No. 873,153. yRenewed'September 3,v 1918. Serial No.' 252,466.

To all whom t may concern.' v

' Be itknown that I, MAURICE N. TRoNE, a citizen of the Unitedy States,V and a resident of Hanovenin the county of York and State of Pennsylvania, have made certain new and useful f Improvements in Shift Mechanism for Type-Writers, of which the following is a specification.

. My invention relates to shift mechanism for typewriters, and it consists in the combinations, constructions and arrangements herein described and claimed. i

" vAnobject of my invention is to provide a device for-moving the platen of a typewriterinto its upper position by temporary shift keys'located'at the left and right sides of the keyboard.

A further object of my invention is toy providea locking key whichwhen depressed will shift the platen into its upper position and. lock it in this position. 'A further object of my inventionis to provide-'means consisting of the shift keys themselves for releasing the locked yplaten and permitting its return to normal position thereby combining theztwo functions of shifting and releasing in both of the temporary shift keys.

rv,Other objects and advantages will appear inthe followingspecification and the novel features of the device. will be particularly i pointed out in the appended claims.

My'invention -is illustratedfin the accompanying drawings "forming part of this application'in which;

- FigureV 1 is a vertical section through a portion of the typewritter showing the shifting and locking mechanism,

' Fig.v `2*'is a plan fview of a portion of atypewriter showing thoseparts which con-v.. stitute the novel features of the invention,`

' the `other parts of the typewriter being omittedifor the sake of clearness,

Fig. 3 `is. a perspective view of a rock shaft, Y

Fig. 4 is a view similar to Fig. 1 showing a modied form,

Fig. 5 is a plan-view of a portionV of the Y. shifting and lockingmechanism of the modilied form,

Fig. 6 Vis a perspective view of the rock shafty of the modifiedV form, and

' .Fig.\7 -is a view lof-a portion of the mechanismv shown in Fig. 1, the parts being shifted to` another position.

In carrying out my invention lI make use of a typewriter, preferably of that form of the carriage is adapted to rest and to travel. This front portion carries a platen (not shown) in the usual manner. At 8 I have shown'a rod or bar which is provided with a series of parallel slots 9 in whichare pivotally mounted the various keys of the typewriter. Since this'invention has to do mainly with the three keys mentioned above only one key for letters or rcharacters is shown. A

'Referring now to Figs. 1 and 2, VI have shown therein a shift key 10`and a lock .key 11. The latter is atthe end of a lever 12 (see Fig. 1) which extends rearwardly and is pivoted on the rod 8. It is provided with an arm 13'arranged for engagement with the rear portion of the carrier 5. Thisportion of the carrier has an extension 5a which is provided with a pin 14 adapted to become seated inone or-the-other of the two recesses lfand 15b which are located at the upper portion of an aperture 15 inthe rear end of a lever'16,the fulcrum of which is indicated i' soV i The shift key 10 is at the end of a lever i 19 which is also pivoted on the bar 8 and which Yis also provided with an arm 19x correspondingwith the arm 13 of thel lever 12 (see Fig. 2), both of these arms being arranged to` bear on the movable carrier 5. A second shiftkey 2O is at the end'of a lever 21 which is pivotally mounted on the bar 8, this shift key 20 being at the righty of the machine while the shift key 10 is at theleft as'clearly shown' in Fig. 2, the key 20 acting i on a portion (not shown) of the carrier 5 but which isy substantially similar'to that portion shown in Fig. 1 in connection with' thel arms 13 rand 19 rotated around its axis.

In Fig. 3, I have shown a rock shaft 22, which I mount between thel sidey members of the base 1, 4as shown in Fig. 2,- preferably retaining the rock shaft Y in position by means of Vscrews 23 so that the shaft may be Y Near one lend of the shaft, z'. e., the left end looking from the front of the machine, I provide a forwardly v extending arm 24 Which is provided with a ylaterally 'eXtending'pin25p This arm 24 is proiec tedy rearvstardly. and isprovidedwith a lockingV bolt 26 which" extends Vthrough a c iirved .slot ,27% in an arm 27 loosely mounted -on the 4rock shaft22andprovided lWitlna laterally. extendingaportioit 28,-. The armf 27V iS adjustablezfwith respect to the arm 24 and whenf,l adjusted may -be secured inlpositionbymeans of the boltl26lso asto be .held `rigidly-thereby., and to rotatewiththe rock shaft'` 22.k l A; locking .member 29 f .is :adjustably l'secured to the rock shaft 22 and-is provided vwith a hookoigshoulder. BOKWhose purpose Willi be t explained,- later. AnE arm, 31 1s adju'stably-` secured, to the oppositefiendy of Y'25V the ,rokshaft22 and isprovidedivithga laterally extending .pin ,32.

VFrc'nn the l,foregoing .descriptionfof ,the

various, parts of tthe*` device. the @operation thereof.y inayl be readily understoodA lThe normal position of the parts vis shown in, Fig, l.1. Inthisposition.` it Will beseen that Ythe movable carrierg is locked-in its pin A14 is in the vrecess 15a. Now Whenit is desired to-shift thegplatenf as for Writing avsingle capitalletterl either-ofthe keys v10 or ,29,may.bedepressedf The depression of either-ofthese keys willfcausethe rotation of pressed, ,the Jever, V19 which bears `the key Willrengagethe pin-25 lonthefarm 24, thusl rotatingfthe rock *shaft 22 ,in the .dire ,ioni shownby the curved arrow in Fig. 1. his

- will y,causethe leverl 16 to rise .soyas `to free the,pin,14from...the recess. 15a Whilethe movement ofthe varm 19 which corre-.1

spends; to thearm 13 (see Fig. 1) will swing.

the .,carriage solas to raise lthe platen 7 Immediately kon the release 0fl the shift keyv also lever-16.` The lever- 21 whicheibears.

the-,shift key 20-is, provi-ded With; an arm- 21X. similar tothearm19x Which-engages-and; swings-the Amovable carrier 5 forward, thusra1s 1ng,the.platen in the manner: already eX- plained. It-,Willbe `apparent from-,this fde- ,Y scrlption that the keyslf and Zwaan as.

temporary shiftY keys, thus enabling the operator to usev either hand inrmaking aY temporary shift' and adding greatly/ite the rapidity of operation of thel typewriter since he does'nothaye to set or reset any'v levers to --changetheV action' ofone of thev shift keys,.-as forlinstance the right hand shift key, into a shift lock.YV

VNew when it is Ydesired :to lockthelplaten Yin its shifted position,it is `onlynecessary teypress thevr loek keyfll, The Vye.lf-eci;-fisto cause a pin 12X carried by thel lever 12V Which bears the key 111-,andenswn.theinatned surface of -thearm 29, thusrotatingl thefarm slightly, rotating1 the., roekl shaftfgf22 andfithe arm` v27 andfjcausing'the; lever l-lstoz.- rise so the ,v arm 13 :presses f'the'-inovablepgcarrierw 5 forwardly, thus raising; `thespleten@ 1g When' thepin 12X reaches the hook orfshoulder-i() on the arm 29it enters underneath the shoulder as ,shownin Eigrwand this enfY 1 f trance permits the .--.le`ver-Y 16;.7 to descend the :recess 15",y (seefF-ig 7) fthiisllokillg .the

platen yin Aits upper' positionv Vr'H16ff'keyn,-11iis.

heldl in its depressedvpo sition by thefengage-' ment lof the .pin 12",lunderzthe@shcnrlde1:7130;-v

The operator mayV now Writecapital:let--V ters .and vwhen he wishes toreturn the' .platen he in ay ip ress eitherf of 'thegsh'iftV Lkeys' 101er] 20. Y. This Willi/rock 1 the shaft 22-thus :raising the lever 16 so asfto'rfree thefpin 'lwfr'omr the recess 15b; f v -W-he'nthe'shoulder ileaves the `pinr :12X the e weight: f. of "theyplaten and.-

the arrierf -Willl cause the latterfito rmove toits original position-shown:ingFigif1.

modified'. formi ofx the device; In this form the lever 16 has its fulcrumat117,"V but-isf pro-vidediwith a .curved extension 16) l WhichV extendsforvvardly, as ShovvninxFigJA. `The end of this extension 16x -i is arranged Fto .f en@ gage `a bell-erankalevertl() "which is secured;

to a Vspindle 41 )like that shownwinfFigs:l 5

and 6. This fspindlealso bears an 442,15 which is similar to the arm-29. in Figml and? rangedto engage alpin 44Yfon--theleverf12l which bears the'loek key-111. 'I`l'1el,lon,qgfarm?` of the .bellecrank .levers 40 Vprojects upwardly At. the other end of the. sha-,ftorspindle 4].fis an arm 46 which lisfarrangedfto.heengaged bears the shift keyv 20, this pinVbeingfprecisely the same4` as the) 4pin 45.1*`

When the shift key 10 isidepressedQ-thet pin 45 .Will= Cause lthel :bell-f@rankelever?y to swing downwardly, thus pressing-a oiifthe extension 16X and raising the levens-,lfiand .thus swinging@v the movable` carrierifinto its shifted u described. 1 the shift key K11i is rel @Sed ',ositi'ony lin the manner already?-4 the iplaten will be returned to its orignal position, since there is nothing to lock the key in its depressed' position. Thel shift key-20 may likewise be depressed and will cause the temporary shifting of the platen, and upon being released' will permit the platen to return to its norm-al position.V

When the lock key l1 is depressed its pin 44 which is in engagement with the arm`42' will cause the rotation of the rock sha-ft 41, f

thus causing the lower end of the bell-crank lever 40 to Vpress downwardly on the eXtension 16x so as to raise the opposite end of the f lever 16. The action therefore is the same as that which has been already delease the latter, thus permitting the return of the platen to its normal position when pressure is relieved from the shift key. It will'thus be seenl that I have provided two shift keys Vwhichmay be used as temporary shift keys when desired, but which may serve as release keys for returning the platen to its normal position after itV has been locked in its shifted position by the lock key. V f

I am aware that typewriters have been provided lwith two shift keys, one of these keys being a temporary shift key and the other being capable of two functions, toV wit;

that of a permanent shift key or locking" key, and that of a temporary shift key, depending upon the way in whichan adjusting lever is manipulated, that is to say, if

Athe last named key is to be used as a permanent shift key thelever must be, turned in one direction and when it is desired to use y .it as aztemporary shift key the lever must be turned in another direction. Yare apt to forget to shift this lever and the Operators result is that manyV times one thinks he is writing capital letters when as a matter of fact he is writing small letters, and vice versa. In my device on the otherA hand, whenever one of the shift keys 1() or 20 is depressed and released, the operator knows immediately that the neXt letter which he writes lwill be a small Aletter unless he previously presses one of the two shift keys or the lock key. My invention is especially applicable to the use those operators who have legal documents, theparagraphs ofV which generally begin with al word or series of words whose letters are all capitals, and where the pressing of the lock keywill insure the locking of the platen in its-upper position and the pressing of either of the shift keys. will insure the release of the platen. It is also useful because of the factr that both shift keys are .temporary shift keys and thus may beused with either the' right or left hand without the necessity of-manipulating theleverto change one: of the keys from a permanent shift key to the temporary shift key. Here againv thedanger of making mistakes is to a large extent done away with. It will also be observed that in making these changes I have not in any way interfered with the locking of the platen `in its upper or lower position by means of the locking lever, 16. I lay no claim to the specific locking lever by which the platen is locked. A' v 5 I claim:

1. A typewriter having a movable platen f carrier, a temporary shift key lever at each side of the key bank, a permanent shift lock key lever, means actuated by said last named lever for-shifting the platen carrier independently of the temporary shift key Y levers, means for retaining the locking key lever in depressed position, and means actuated by each of said temporaryV shift key levers for releasing the shift lock key lever.

2. A typewriter having a movable platen carrier, a temporary shift key lever at each side of the key bank, a permanent shift lock key lever, means actuated by said last named lever for shifting the platen carrier independently of' the temporary shift key levers, a rockshaft, means carried by said rock shaft for retaining said shift lock key lever in its depressed position, and means ioo also carried by said rock shaft and ary vranged to vbe engagedby either of said shift key levers for rotating said rock shaft to release said shift lock key lever.

3. In a typewriter, a movable platen carrier, means for locking said movable platen 'carrier in its upper and lower positions, a

tov simultaneously shift said movable carrier to its upper position independentlyof Asaid temporary shift key levers.

4. Ina typewriter, a movable platen carrier, means for locking said'movable platen carrier in its upper and lower positions, a

pair of temporary shift key levers, means actuated by either of said levers for unlocking the movable carrier in its lower position and for Vsimultaneously moving said carrier to `its upper position, a shift lock key lever, means connecting said shift lock 

